trapped in a story
by rosie isis and rai the kitsune
Summary: this is what happens when a rookie authoress goes to sleep thinking about someone else's story.
1. prologue

okay, this story is posted with permission from Rosie hater, the original author of To Guard. if there's anything in this one you don't get, read the original. this also marks the beginning of of my creator series. the series will span multiple genres.

* * *

Sometimes, I wish I could become a character in one of my stories. Like Shadra Shadow, proud second princess of Lucifer's kingdom in hell, bride to one of the most powerful vampires in existence, and foster mother to three very unusual girls. (her groom's fledgling, a former neo-nazi werewolf, and a resurrected human.)

Or maybe Alicia Shadow, Shadra's younger sister, the grim reaper's second in command, fiancé of a lightning demon, and proud mother of a homunculus son and three girls who were originally her own separate personalities.

Perhaps, Saturn Shadow, the youngest of the three sisters, captain of a pirate crew since she was eleven, berserker since age twelve, yet still able to charm with a small, slightly befanged smile as she peeks out from under the captain's hat that's fallen over one eye for the umpteenth time.

In a sense, I get my wish when I write their stories, and those of my other characters, but I never thought I'd literally get sucked into a story. It wasn't even one of mine. It was one I'd been reading, called To Guard.

I wasn't the only one sucked into it, though, and I wasn't the same inside the story as I am outside of it. No, I got gender-bent, turned into a kitsune, and entered into a makai tournament with one of my few male characters as my partner. His name is Sai Radium. My name in the world of the story? Rai. Just Rai.

Ironically, that's the name of my partner's father. The problem? His mother is my real life namesake. Another problem? He was originally created as a homunculus, but we're both kitsune in the world I was sucked into. The name of our team? Team Alchemy. The irony? We're not the only kitsune team with a secret. Well, at least I know how to use my kitsune abilities, and I seem to have taken on a few of the skills I gave to Sai's mom. Let's see if I can figure out a way to get the two of us back where we belong, and do it without Sai figuring out who I am. After all, I am technically both his mother and grandmother, if you think about it. I did create him and his mother and sisters. (the father was created by a fellow role-player on myspace. J)

I bet everyone's wondering how I got sucked into someone else's story, right? Well, I fell asleep. That's it. That's the big secret. That's also usually how I work out my story lines. In a dream. I go to sleep thinking about different scenarios I can put my characters into, and I see the best ones in my dreams that night. I thought thinking about a story I'd read instead of one I was writing would give me a good break for a night or two. I ended up putting myself into a coma. My persona, the person who usually narrates my stories, got sucked into the story I went to sleep thinking about.

I've always liked things that are adventurous, or involve certain weapons. Mostly, when my characters use weapons, it's a kind of sword or other blade. (I never use guns. Too loud.) When I woke up in the story, I had a katana I'd once morphed Alicia's scythe into. The blade was normal, but the hilt was shaped like a bolt of lightning, and the guard was a storm cloud.

Anyway, the basic stats for Team Alchemy were as such: traits shared: both are golden kitsune with blue eyes; both use katana; Rai's traits: nearly skin tight black silk tank top with matching leather pants, blood red fighter's slippers; accessories include a blood red choker, matching armbands, and a ruby earring shaped like the kanji for moon; Sai's traits: blood red silk tank top and pants, lightning yellow fighter's slippers; accessories include a black choker, black leather armbands, and a shadow diamond earring shaped like the kanji for human (I thought it was a good joke when I gave it to him, him being a homunculus and all, but now that I was on the same team as him, it was kind of embarrassing. Why oh why did I have to have such a twisted sense of irony?!)

* * *

rosie: the fun starts in chapter one.

rai: i'm in for some problems, too.

rosie: anyway, until next time,

rai: read,

rosie: review,

both: and adieu.


	2. Chapter 1

rosie: i think we need a legend for this one.

"this" is regular speech

_"this" _is telepathic speech

"this" is thoughts

oh, and i'll be leaving out most of the details of the original fic because this is first person, and rai isn't going to be there for every single little thing that happens.

* * *

When I woke up in the story and found myself to be at least half a foot taller than my usual height in my dreams, not to mention a kitsune version of my only male homunculus waking up next to me dressed almost completely in blood red, I was kind of freaked out to say the least. When I looked over nearby to see Shippo and Kagome discussing a makai tournament, I nearly fainted. That's when I realized that I was a guy….

I woke up about five minutes later with Sai shaking me, saying, "Hey! You okay?"

I sat up quite quickly when I recognized the voice of the kitsune to be the one _I _gave to Sai Radium in my dreams, nearly knocking heads with him. I looked over to where I'd seen Shippo and Kagome to find them still there, with Kagome perfecting her illusion. I looked back at Sai then, saying, "Yeah. I'm fine. Hey, you wanna enter that tournament those two were talking about? OMG! I sound like Inu Hanyou! I fucking sound like my male soul reaper!!!!"

Sai shrugged, "Yeah, sure. I think those two over there were talking about entering, too, though."

I stood up and dusted off my pants, realizing that I was dressed almost exactly like Kagome's male persona as Sai followed suit and I looked towards the other two kitsune, saying to Sai, "If we leave now, we'll probably beat them there. They're still perfecting the girl's guy look. By the way, what's your name?"

"Well, I usually go by Sai Radium, but I'm not sure that applies here. I guess you should just call me Sai. What's yours?"

"Well, my name changes usually depending on where I am and the situation I'm in, but since right now I'm here and look like this, how about Rai?"

"That's my dad's name."

"Oh? What a coincidence. No duh, kit. I'm your mom. Did I just call him kit?!"

While we were talking, we were heading towards where I remembered Yusuke's castle was in the manga, listening for either Hiei or Kurama's voice. We heard Yusuke first, and sped up to get into the line that was forming. While waiting for our turn to sign up, I looked at Sai, "So, what should our team name be?"

Sai thought for a moment before saying, "Well, how about Team Alchemy. It would kind of be an overt tribute to my fiancé back home."

Trying not to sound like I knew him, I said, "You've got a girl back home? Lucky."

"Hehe. Yeah. My Rage is something else."

"Her name's Rage?"

"Yep. She's one of the middle sisters in a family of seven kids, all with pretty unusual names. Like the oldest and only boy is named Wrath. The oldest girl goes by either Rosa or Sorrow."

"Cool. I know. I created most of that family."

By then, the line had moved forward until we were at the front, so we signed up with Kurama as Team Alchemy. We were the last two in the main sign up line, so it was just as we were turning to leave (with Hiei about to leave, too) that Shippo and Kagome's male persona, Tsukiko, came running up towards the sign up table. Tsukiko nearly collided with me before nearly running Hiei over. I waved Sai on, telling him to try and get us a room while I saw about something. While waiting for Team Foxy to complete their sign up, I heard Kurama saying, "My my, first two golds and now a midnight. This tournament seems to be attracting all kinds of rare kitsune."

I smirked a little when Tsukiko replied with, "You're pretty rare yourself, silver. Why hide in a human form here?"

I waited until Shippo had passed me by with Kurama and Hiei's room key before putting a hand on Tsukiko's shoulder, whispering, "Nice job on the disguise, miko."

Tsukiko's eyes almost popped out of his (her) head when I said that. I nearly cracked up laughing at his (her) expression before adding, "Don't worry, I won't tell. I'm not exactly what I seem to be, either, though my current state is involuntary."

With that, I walked off to catch up to my partner for the tournament, while Tsukiko took a moment to compose himself before catching up to Shippo. I managed to wait until we were up in our hotel room before I fell over laughing, causing Sai to look at me funny, which made me laugh harder at the irony of the moment. After I managed to stop (ten minutes later) and catch my breath, I explained to him why I started laughing in the first place. He started laughing then, too, when I described Tsukiko's expression to him.


	3. Chapter 2

That evening was the beginning of the tournament. Sai somehow slept through me practicing with my kitsune powers for a couple hours, but I was able to give him a quick rundown of the basics as we walked together to the arena. As we sat in the stands watching Team Foxy's match, I heard Yusuke up in the box seats talking with Kurama and Hiei, "So, who do you guys like out of this so far?"

I sweat dropped a little when Kurama replied with, "Well, I have some concerns about the midnight on Team Foxy and the two golds that make up Team Alchemy. There's no record of any of them in any of the files. The closest I could find were a lightning demon named Rai Radium and his homunculus son, Sai. They live in the ningenkai with their families, though. It seems that Sai's mother is an unusual mix, too. Two demon tribes, vampire, werewolf, and a bit of human. She's the second to the western grim reaper."

I rubbed the back of my head a little as we watched Shippo go to sit at the edge of the ring, "Oh boy. They're onto us, Sai. Or at least, they've found a record of you. They seem to think I have some family connection to you because of the name I chose. Shit! Shit! Shit! They're fucking onto us!!!! I just hope they don't dig any deeper! If they keep going, they'll probably figure out that I'm really a girl!!!!"

To my morbid fascination, when I scented the blood of the two rat demons after Tsukiko killed them, I felt my incisors lengthening. From Sai's sudden intake of breath, I could guess that he hadn't lost his vampire traits when we were turned into kitsune. Still trying to pretend that I didn't know who he really was, I asked, "You okay, Sai?"

"Yeah. I just found out my mom's vampire traits haven't stopped their effects in this form. The smell of blood is getting to me."

"I think I'm getting a similar feeling. Think you can tamp down until after our turn? We're up soon, you know. We can find some minor demon that no one will miss afterwards, or something similar. I doubt we'll have an opportunity to get human blood here."

"Yeah. I can hold it in, but I'm not sure for how long. Think you can put up a smokescreen if I go berserk during the match?"

"No promises on how long it'll last, but I can manage one if we need it."

"Okay. Hey, I wonder if I can use alchemy in this body…."

"We'll check that after the match. If it works, it can be a surprise trump card. We don't want to empty our whole bag of tricks in the first round."

"Got it. It looks like it'll be our turn soon. We should get down there."

"Yeah. Good idea."

We both headed out of the stands then and down towards the entrance to the ring. On the way, though, I could hear Rin's voice asking about Shippo. I scented Sesshoumaru somewhere in the vicinity of Yusuke and the others. I just hoped he didn't recognize my fighting style, which I kind of modeled as a combination of those I gave the shadow sisters. After all, he once fought Alicia, and he might have recognized some of my moves.

Like with Team Foxy's match, our opponents were a pair of rat demons. Sai and I looked at each other for a moment before I said telepathically, "_Should I just smokescreen us now and we each take one, or should we start out with the katana? We could work together on that._"

Sai smirked and nodded as if he liked both options, "_Let's go with the katana this round. We can smokescreen and eat next round if they look tasty enough._"

Without further ado, we both drew our katana as the mc announced the start of the match, and we each took out one of the rats. It wasn't as quick and clean as Tsukiko's swordplay was, but I think the audience liked it better our way. By the end of the match, our opponents were in pieces and we were covered in blood. We were both trying our damnedest not to go berserk from the smell as we walked off the ring and headed out of the arena.

After leaving the arena, we broke out into a dead run, each of us trying to beat the other back to our hotel room so we could get the blood off of us before we went berserk. We nearly ran over Hiei, Rin, and Sesshoumaru as we rushed down the hallway. Unfortunately for me, Sai won our little impromptu race and slammed the hotel room door in my face. I didn't have my room key with me, so I was stuck outside in the hallway pounding on the door with a blood covered fist when Hiei and the other two came my way, just in time to hear me yelling, "Damn it, Sai! I need a shower, too! Let me in, damn it! I don't have my fucking key!"

I was too busy trying not to go berserk to notice Sesshoumaru coming up behind me until he spoke not two feet away from me, "Something wrong, kit? I thought your kind didn't mind getting a little bloody."

His voice made me jump, to say the least, before I turned to look and found both him and Hiei standing behind me. My eyes must have changed color or something, because Hiei's comment was, "I thought your eyes were blue."

If they had been able to see more of my face through the blood, they would have seen the sudden blush rising into my cheeks. (despite the fact that I was a guy here, as a girl, I've always thought that both of these demons were kinda hot.) Sesshoumaru must have seen something, because he suddenly took hold of my chin and held it so that he could get a closer look at my face, "Oh. I see now. You're a mix, aren't you? I can tell by your breathing right now that you're struggling for control."

My struggle to not go berserk wasn't the only reason for my strained breathing and accelerated heartbeat at the time. Sesshoumaru was nearly close enough to kiss me, and despite the fact that I was taller than I normally am in my dreams, he was still a good foot taller than me! It was about that time that Sai decided to open the door to our room, still wet from the shower and wearing only a towel as he said, "Sorry about that, Rai. I forgot you didn't have your key."

His eyes were definitely red. He hadn't fully regained control over his vampire instincts yet. I took the distraction he provided as an opportunity to run into the room and lock myself in the bathroom before taking a shower of my own. If it wasn't for the blood, it would've been a cold one. Sai's no slouch in the looks department, and him combined with Sesshoumaru and Hiei had me inwardly freaking out. Three hot guys, and I'm still mentally a girl here! Over the water, I could hear Sai getting the third degree from the two demons, since I must have looked almost the same as he did.

When I got the blood off, I stepped back out, having cooled my blush as well. Like Sai, I came out still wet and in nothing but a towel. Too bad the front door was still open. Sesshoumaru had gone on to Team Foxy's room, but Kurama and Hiei were just coming back from there. Youko was in control, giving me a view of one of the other major hotties in the story that I'd by now figured out I'd been sucked into. The silver kitsune also saw me, though, and waved Hiei on before coming into the room and shutting the door with a smirk. I'd started blushing again, "Damn it! And where the hell is Sai?! Don't tell me he snuck off to find a mark without me!"

Youko's expression turned thoughtful just after I thought that. I must have accidentally broadcasted in my distress. Sure enough, the first word out of his mouth was, "Mark?"

I could feel my cheeks heating up even more, this time in embarrassment that I'd broadcasted that thought. When I didn't answer, though, he came closer, saying, "You know, you're kinda good looking."

First time anyone had said that or anything like it to me inside or out of a dream. Too bad it had to be inside one, and damn me for stuttering enough to show my fangs, because the next thing he said was, "Look kind of fierce, too, with those fangs."

Too much, not enough control left, I jumped him. Not _that_ way. What I mean is that I literally tackled him and tried to bite. Hiei picked that moment to come back and check on Youko. The stupid silver hadn't closed the door enough for it to lock automatically. Hiei's first instinct just happened to be trying to kill me for being nearly naked on top of the (half a foot taller than me, damn it!) older kitsune, no matter the circumstances surrounding our current position. Luckily, Youko wasn't mad at me for jumping him like that, and stopped Hiei from attacking as he wrapped an arm around my waist and sat up, saying, "It's my fault, Hiei. I provoked him in this state."

Hiei rolled his eyes, but still sheathed his katana, saying, "I warned you about the golds, didn't I? They're both mixes, with vampire traits. I told you when we left the midnight's room that their control was slipping because of all the blood in the air at the arena. I'm just surprised it was only the younger one that jumped you."

This earned him a glare from me, "Younger?! Is that what Sai told them?! We're the same age, Damn it!"

Apparently, I broadcasted again, because I got chuckles from both Hiei and Youko, who added, "Whatever you say, kit. If you want to, go ahead and bite me. Just don't take too much. Shuichi is already freaking out about what happened with the midnight a few doors down."

I didn't wait for him to change his mind. I bit down fast. Hiei stood by to both make sure no one walked in on us and to make sure I stopped before I drained Youko too much. When I felt the hunger stopping, I instinctively licked the wound I'd made to close it, leaving only two small trails of blood on his neck to mark where I'd bitten him. I licked the blood away, too, without even thinking about it as I felt Youko shudder a little. With the haze I was in at the time, the reason for his shudder didn't even begin to register. I simply whispered, "Thank you" into his ear and got off of him. Or at least, I tried to get off of him. His arm was still wrapped around my bare waist. My body had dried while I was feeding off of the older kitsune, but I was still in nothing but a towel, alone in a room with two older males. My blood-induced haze cleared up quite quickly then, but all I could think was, "SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for me, Hiei left the door open when he walked in on us earlier, and Sesshoumaru just happened to pick that moment to walk by with Botan of all people! I was mentally both cheering for their timing and kicking myself for being in nothing but a towel in front of the death fairy. When Botan noticed us through the open doorway, her face turned beet red and she nearly screeched out, "Kurama, Hiei, what the hell are you two doing in there?!"

Sesshoumaru must have seen the look of "Please get me the fuck out of this" I was giving him, because he came in and pried Youko's arm off of me bodily. He set me carefully on my feet before glaring at the other two males in the room for a moment and walking back over to Botan. Of course, after that, both of the older males left in a hurry, even though Sesshoumaru simply continued to escort Botan to her hotel room.

Sai came back a few minutes later, and I immediately told him what had happened, before looking at our clothes and saying, "You wanna see if your alchemy works here? I don't think either one of us wants to go out looking like this."

Luckily, it did work. Sai got the blood out of our clothes with ease, and we decided to watch the fun at the local night club, knowing Tsukiko had a date with the mc. I felt comfortable going only because I knew Sesshoumaru would be there, as well as Sai. I was nervous, because I also knew that Hiei and Kurama would be there, having their little competition over who would get into Tsukiko's pants. I just hoped I hadn't become the consolation prize in that wager after what happened.


	4. Chapter 3

The night club was pretty packed already when we got there. I'd asked Sai to help me pull my hair back into a braid, only to find out that I had the kanji for wolf tattooed on the back of my neck. He still braided my hair, but it wasn't as tight a braid as I'd originally planned, so as to hide the tattoo. The end was held by a black ribbon I'd found in my pants pocket.

I spotted Sesshoumaru almost immediately and we made our way over to his table. When we got there, I asked him politely, "Do you mind if we sit with you?"

"After the situation I last saw you in, I'd say you need the protection in a place like this."

I took it as a yes, and sat down next to him with a slight blush. Sai sat on my other side, which made me blush harder. When Tsukiko came over with his arms wrapped around Rin and a transformed Shippo, I calmed down somewhat. That is, until Tsukiko spotted me sitting next to Sesshoumaru, "_What the hell are you doing here?_"

I scratched the back of my head nervously, "_He helped me out of an embarrassing situation earlier, so I asked him if we could sit here for a little while._"

"_What kind of embarrassing situation?_"

Sesshoumaru cut in then, "_After you tricked me into escorting that death fairy to her room, we found both of the tournament proctors in his room. The door was wide open, and he was in a compromising position with the silver similar to the one I found you in with the kit._"

At this, my earlier blush returned in full force, and I muttered something about stupid vampire instincts putting me in a tight spot. This got me a raised eyebrow from Tsukiko and the two he came over with, the midnight voicing their mutual question, "Vampire instincts?"

Sai explained, "Well, we're what's called a mix. In this case, kitsune with vampire traits. We were having a bit of a hard time after our match today because of all the blood in the air and on us. I think Rai here first met Lord Sesshoumaru after I'd slammed the door to our hotel room in his face in a bit of a panic to get to the shower."

I butted in then with, "Yeah, and you left the door to the room wide open when you left. I came out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel just as Hiei and Kurama were walking past the door! Kurama started hitting on me, but as soon as he mentioned my fangs, I sort of snapped and jumped him. Hiei had gone on before, but he came back just before I bit Kurama. That was a compromising enough position, but the one Lord Sesshoumaru found me in was after I'd finished drinking from Kurama and was trying to get off of him. He had his arm around my waist, damn it! I was pretty much mortified that that death fairy saw me in nothing but a fucking towel!"

By the time I'd finished ranting, I could tell that the two natural kitsune were trying their hardest not to laugh their asses off right then and there. Even Sesshoumaru's lip was twitching! After thinking over what I'd said, I slammed my head against the table with a mortified groan. I sounded like fucking Edward Elric! Sai must have thought so, too, because he snickered, and the dam burst. Kurama came over to find Tsukiko and Riné laughing their asses off, Sai trying his damnedest not to join them, Sesshoumaru's lip twitching, Rin looking confused as hell, and me face down on the table.

Unfortunately, my braid had slipped to one side, and Kurama just _had_ to say something about it, "Why do you have the kanji for wolf tattooed on the back of your neck?"

Without lifting my head from the table, I muttered, "Damned if I know. I just found out it was there when I asked Sai to help me with my fucking hair."

Tsukiko and the others stopped laughing while I was talking, and the four who hadn't already seen the tattoo leaned forward and stared at the back of my neck. At that point, Riné pointed out my ruby earring for some stupid reason, and Tsukiko suggested that Sesshoumaru go and dance with Yukina. After ignoring most of the conversation, and the resulting trick that Rin and the two transformed kitsune pulled to set up Sesshoumaru with the ice maiden, I was finally calmed down enough to lift my head up from the table and watch Kuwabara get shoved into a potted plant. Taking pity on the only human in the place, I slipped out of the now almost abandoned booth past Sai and helped him out of the plant, saying, "You okay? That was a bit harsh of Lord Sesshoumaru to do that."

He let me help him out of the plant, but didn't answer as the two of us watched Hiei following Tsukiko out of the club. I looked over at Sai, and after a moment, we both nodded in agreement. I followed out after Hiei, not noticing that Kurama was almost right behind me as I ran to find the two of them. We both found Hiei with his katana pressing Tsukiko against a tree, the blade starting to dig into the midnight's throat. Without even thinking about it, Kurama and I fell into sync with each other, the silver pulling Hiei off of Tsukiko and me moving instinctively to clear away the line of blood from Tsukiko's throat.

Of course, this action weirded Tsukiko out big time, but since both of the older demons had seen me do this earlier, they pretty much ignored it. I started to feel sleepy while trying to tune out the ensuing conversation, since I knew what would happen already. Somehow, though, I got talked into joining their game, and while Tsukiko and Kurama were dragging me to the hotel, it was all I could do to get out, "_Sai! Help me out here! I've gotten myself talked into playing a game with the other kitsune. I'm gonna need you there with me, you know!_"

By the time we'd reached Team Foxy's hotel room, Sai was waiting by the door for us. Tsukiko agreed to let him join the game, too, and we all went inside. As soon as I was let go of, I plopped down on the couch with Sai and tried not to fall asleep. I'd decided to purposely keep myself awake during the tournament because I wasn't exactly sure of the repercussions that would come about from me falling asleep while in a dream. I am, after all, essentially a creator who's been put into a world created by someone else. Since most of my creating happens while I'm asleep anyway, I had a feeling that anything I dreamt up while in the story would probably come into existence when I woke up. And since I was sharing a hotel room with one of my creations, I didn't want to risk dreaming about his storyline and have his mom spontaneously appear or something.

Now, however, I was wishing I could recreate the one time before I became a teenager that I managed to stay awake for a week straight during summer vacation. I hadn't managed to do that since then, but now I was wishing I could, if only for the duration of the story, so I wouldn't reveal myself to be a creator. Of course, it was soon after that wish that Murphy's Law decided to kick in.


End file.
